Mergers change Yellow Pages look; Advertising posts 5.5% growth to $12.65 billion; SBC, Verizon on top.(Brief Article)

Advertising Age, August, 2000 by Endicott, R. Craig

Amid consolidation of Yellow Pages publishers, Yellow Pages advertising delivered a steady 5.5% growth in 1999 to $12.65 billion.

Consolidation is too fresh to have delivered decidedly new ad dollars -- the product life cycle of a directory is 16 months -- as the uptick in 1999 matched that of '98.

Yellow Pages prices increased about 4% in 2000, on par with previous years.

Yellow Pages observers claim industry mergers could stimulate spending in the medium as they change the geographic makeup of books to give them added value.

"The advantage of consolidation is a bigger national footprint that not only produces advertising and marketing efficiencies but broadens the brand umbrella covering publishing, long distance and wireless,"...

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